My personal crusade: spreading the correct pronunciation of Iran. EEEE-Raan not Eye-Ran

While Iran is experiencing severe drought, there are incidents that make this worse. The pipeline transferring sea water to the water sweetener facility in Bandage Lengeh in south Iran has been set on fire, and deliberately so, per the governor of Bandar Lengeh.

A reminder that "Iranian" is our national identity not a racial designation Imposing US/western racial categorizations on Iran is just stupid "Iranians" of literally every "racial background" come in all skin tones, eye colors and shapes and all hair colors and textures

So we have two possibilities here: a) Grossi is making things up and undermining his own employer, making him unfit for office. or b) What the IAEA puts in its technical reports reflects political pressure from governments which are hostile to Iran and its nuclear program.

Count me skeptical

The speed and magnitude of social changes inside Iran during the past 5 years have been unprecedented in our contemporary history. It has been far greater than what happened in the late 90s & early 00s. However the majority of the kharejneshin pundit class talking about the

Timelapse (1997-2007) of the construction of Borje Milad, one of Tehran's most distinct landmarks

For the longest time, those of us working on #Iran said sanctions aren't targeted, they affect the whole population and decimate the middle classes-traditional agents of change. @Lghara93 reports on this - a must read:

In my PhD thesis, I studied how economic sanctions affect political rights and freedoms in Iran. Using quantitative data from 80+ sanctioned countries, I found that only two showed any positive impact on their freedom index. Iran was not one of them.

Important reporting from @Lghara93

great reporting from @Lghara93

Sanctions were supposed to weaken the Iranian government. Instead, they hollowed out its middle class & strengthened the IRGC. I spoke to @CNN's @Lghara93 about how sanctions have “channeled resources to actors who benefit from isolation." https://t.co/zjftyJUDwS

The Iranian middle class, long a force of political moderation, stability, economic growth, and the base of the country’s reform movement, is shrinking fast under the pressure of Western sanctions, researchers say. Left in its wake are rising societal resentments and an

Shame on all those who advocated broad economic sanctions in the name of "promoting democracy in Iran." The exact opposite has been achieved. "From 2012-2019, when comparing the real Iran and the non-sanctioned “twin,” researchers found that, were it not for sanctions, the

As I explained to Gharagozlou for her piece @CNN, #sanctions on #Iran have become a "Robin Hood in reverse," taking from the middle class and poor to entrench the powerful. Thank you, @Lghara93 , for highlighting this critical issue at https://t.co/OJv5Yxjtrd

New piece by me… #Iran’s middle class is slowing vanishing due to #sanctions https://t.co/AASWL6dJ7w

Trump is once again signaling openness to diplomacy with Iran, telling reporters that: "I think Iran will come along... I'd love to take the sanctions off when they're ready to talk. They can't really survive with those sanctions — those sanctions are very tough." This is how

NEW: When "snapback" went into effect, there was a lot of talk about how it may impact international diplomacy and treaties. Less discussed: the impact on the region. Sharp look at how Iraqis are perceiving the return of UN sanctions on Iran. https://t.co/rNYSAVRjnN

Trump sounding hopeful for diplomacy with Iran, for the first time in months. Surprising, given the return of UN sanctions, the end of inspections, Iran's ongoing defiance re: enrichment, and the evident risk of new Israeli strikes.

Setting the stage for another war…

Reza Pahlavi's monarchist lobby group NUFDI has been engaged in smearing, harassment and attacks campaign against me and other journalists & academics.